1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a medium having tactile objects thereon and specifically to an educational medium for children in the form of a sheet having thematic scenes thereon that include tactile objects and that is of sufficient size to enable the user to walk thereon, cover themselves, and to identify the tactile objects thereon by touch.
2. Prior Art
There are many patents in the prior art that disclose the use of tactile objects on a device for various purposes such as to enable the user to play a game (U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,230), to recognize colors (U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,204), or to identify shapes.
Further, there are books having tactile objects representing a cat's fur, tongue, i.d. tags, food bowl, and basket with each having a unique touch to identify the cat and objects related to it. Such a book is entitled “Touch and Feel KITTEN” published by DK Publishing Co. and copyrighted in 1999.
Another such book is entitled “Percival the Beautiful Butterfly” published by The Book Company Publishing PTY Limited and copyrighted in 2002. It has scenes of a butterfly with portions of its wings depicted by what appears to be colored cellophane.
Likewise, it appears that colored cellophane is used to represent a frog's tongue and portions of flower petals.
Another book is entitled “Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings” published by Penguin Putnam, Inc. and copyrighted 1995 by Matthew Van Fleet. Each page is a fold out having, for instance, a circle of yellow fuzz before the fold out and with the circle of yellow fuzz representing a portion of a duckling when the section is folded outwardly.
Another page has a triangle of a brown, rough surface before the fold out. After the fold out, the triangle becomes a part of a frog's back. Other pages illustrate a gray, fuzzy square associated with the back of a Koala bear, a green oval associated with an iguana lizard, a white rectangle associated with and representing the wool of sheep, a scratchy blue crescent representing a shark, and a rough pink representing a line and a frog's tongue when folded out.
There are a number of disadvantages to such prior art devices. First, there is no thematic scene associated with the “touch” books. It is simply a single page with a single thought represented on the page. For instance, the entire alphabet cannot be presented simultaneously in a tactile form to allow interaction with the user.
Second, the user, or child, cannot become a part of the scene. The child cannot sit on sand, see a boat on the sea, the clouds in the sky, the fish in the water, and the like as one theme.
Third, the user, the child, cannot sleep under it, or feel the image (texture) while interacting with the scene.
Fourth, for little children, there is little, if anything, to hold their attention for any significant period of time.